richvh wrote:How does that conjugation work? As far as I can tell, り attaches to the 連用形 of 四段動詞, which in the case of 知る would be 知り, so how do you arrive at しれり?

It's a contraction of しりあり (you won't find this explanation in many books; a lot of places say it's 已然形 + り, but the source is 連用形 + あり contracted.)

Next bit of Yoshizane's speech:

只（たゞ）冥土（めいど）黄泉（くわうせん）のおん供（とも）とこそ思ひ奉（たてまつ）れ。

Modernized:

ただ冥土（めいど）黄泉（こうせん）のお供（とも）とこそ思い奉（たてまつ）れ。

Translation: Just think of going to the afterlife together.

Is 思ひ奉れ equivalent to 思ってください here? It seems to be a command form of a humble auxiliary verb;

That's a possibility. In Nara and Heian Japanese, having a こそ required the end-of-clause verb to be in 已然形, but I seem to recall hearing that the rule disappeared in later Japanese so I don't know if that's relevant here. The command form certainly does seem to be what fits here.

Oh, I see, I didn't even think that there might be an adjective 思わしい. So 思しからず候 would be 思わしくないです in modern language (was trying to figure out how to parse しからず from the 助動詞 listed on Tony's bungo chart, didn't think to check the adjective portion.) So the sentence would be better rendered as "Not being abe to die at the place I should die, inviting laughter, soiling our name and embarrassing our ancestors is not desirable."

Very tentative translation:"Yoshizane, this is complicated(?). However, if I were to tell you to shave your head, don black clothes and become a wandering priest, that would go against my teachings.

Sticky points: the いみじく reading on 微妙 and the 申たり after it, and the もせめ at the end.

Alot of this is a bit over my head (as far as the reading of the kanji is concerned..)

But I always understood いみじく to mean: admirably; exquisitely; aptly

Could the reading of that character 微妙 also be びみょう (1) delicate; subtle; sensitive; (2) difficult; delicate (situation); complicated; (3) doubtful; questionable; dicey? That matches more with the complicated definition you are using. Delicate might also be a good word to utilize in English.

Actually, that would be the meaning of いみじくも (the 連用形 of the classical adjective いみじ plus も), something I wasn't aware of until vkladchik brought it up.

Could the reading of that character 微妙 also be びみょう (1) delicate; subtle; sensitive; (2) difficult; delicate (situation); complicated; (3) doubtful; questionable; dicey? That matches more with the complicated definition you are using. Delicate might also be a good word to utilize in English.

I'm pretty sure it's いみじく もうしたり; in other words, the 申 is standing for もうし. You should not expect Meiji/Edo-era texts to conform to post-WW2 okurigana rules. Things like this, where part of even the conjugated section of the verb are expressed by the kanji, are common. In this case, since たり attaches only to the 連用形; it's "obviously" もうし.

My reading of もとりもせめ is that せめ is the 命令形 of せむ and that the whole phrase means "don't go against [even in this extreme case]"